Perhaps you read the blog I wrote three years ago about our month-long visit to Russia. Edwin and I packed each day with visits to museums, concerts and general sightseeing.
This past weekend we traveled again to Moscow where Edwin taught a mini-course on the Jewish Music of the Ottoman Empire. The course was sponsored by a Moscow-based
organization called Eshkol and by the American Avi Chai Foundation.
Avi Chai supports numerous Jewish educational and cultural organizations and events in Israel and around the world encouraging Jewish study and involvement for unaffiliated Jews. In the Former Soviet Union it operates as Eshkolot. Eshkolot is an open edutainment (education+entertainment) project that promotes both modern and traditional Jewish culture in the form of lectures, workshops and concerts.
Eshkol sponsors ongoing programs focusing on Jewish literature, culture and families. It is a very progressive organization and seeks to host events not in expected venues such as synagogues or community centers but take their programs into areas where young people work and live and specifically into venues that are appealing to this age group. This mini-course was held in a hip bar called Lady Jane. (All photos of mini-course are from Eshkol website and taken by staff photographer.)
The bar itself is a renovated public bath house which has been divided into various spaces for performing and socializing.
The mini-course included two lectures by Edwin
Jewish Music of the Ottoman Empire
and a concert and lecture by renowned musicians Hadass Pal-Yarden and Eliyahu Dagmi. 
Eshkol director, Simon Parizhsky, translated the lectures from both English and Hebrew into Russian as many of the attendees spoke neither English nor Hebrew.
Introducing Concert of Turkish Sephardic Song
By the scheduled starting time the bar was filled to the brim for the lecture. 90% of those attending were young people – 20 something. I was told that 140 people had pre-registered for the course and that most of them had some sort of Jewish connection although some were there because of an interest in Turkish music. Many in the audience had notebooks and feverishly took notes during the lecture. I thought perhaps the mini-course offered college credit but learned that, no, the participants were there because of a serious desire to learn about different aspects of Judaism. 
All the events of the mini-course took place in the evening hours leaving Edwin and me our days free to renew our fascination with the Russian capitol and our very warm relationship with the Moscow Metro!
Moscow Underground
This subway system, built by Stalin, simply must be the best in the whole world – the cleanest (OK Tokyo is spotless too) and the most beautifully designed. If one can read the Russian alphabet getting around the huge city underground is easy and interesting. I wrote about the subway on my blog if you’d like to know more check it out.
A light snow was falling when we arrived at Izmaylovo,
the flea market located on the estate which was Peter the Great’s playground when he was a boy. 
Because of the cold we hurried around the booths of Russian painted wooden crafts, pottery from Uzbekistan, beautiful linens and scarves and much more. The prices are greatly discounted from those in the heart of town.
The Bolshoi was closed for renovations when we visited three years ago. This time is was open but the ballet was on break. We had hoped to get a view of the interior of the theater but such a tour requires advance reservations and not having thought of that, we settled for walking around the plaza and will save the ballet for our next visit. 
We were able to get tickets to the Novaya Opera in an excellent performance of Eugene Onegin at the Kolobov Novaya Theatre. Despite a rather silly staging of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, the singers and orchestra were top notch. The audience again was filled
with young people who came in couples and in groups and cheered at the end of the arias and at curtain call. I wondered if the $13 ticket price for the superb performance is one of the reasons the young people come in droves. A night at the opera is cheaper than going to
the movies in Moscow. 
Certainly the weekend was a great getaway mainly because of the warm welcome and gracious hospitality of the Simon Parizhsky, Anna Nudel, and all the staff of Eshkol. We feel that we connected not just with colleagues but with friends and we look forward to seeing them here in Israel or back in Moscow.
